Assistant Technical Officer (ATO) Medicines Management

Assistant Technical Officer (ATO) Medicines Management

NHS AfC Band 2-3

Main area Assistant Technical Officer Band 3/ Band 2 to 3 progression Grade NHS AfC Band 2-3 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 220-WHT-8325432

Employer Whittington Health NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site The Whittington Health NHS Trust Town London Salary £31,066 - £33,270 per annum inclusive of HCAs Salary period Yearly Closing 27/10/2026 23:59

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By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.

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Are you looking for the opportunity to develop your skills and career progression?

Why not try a interesting role in hospital pharmacy?

This could be your first step into a rewarding, challenging, progressive and lifelong career in hospital pharmacy.

An exciting opportunity has arisen, and we are currently seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Senior Assistant Technical Officer to join and support our busy team in the Pharmacy Department at the Whittington Hospital. You will support the provision of pharmacy services across the Trust, and provide a professional, efficient and customer focused service following agreed departmental policies and procedures.

We are looking for a candidate who has good customer service and interpersonal skills, communicates well, and demonstrates the ability to prioritise and organise work to meet deadlines. The candidate ideally should have previous pharmacy experience and hold an NVQ Level 2 Certificate in Pharmacy Services or equivalent. But if not, you will undertake the BTEC Level 2 Certificate in the Principles and Practice for Pharmacy Support Staff through the Apprenticeship framework. You must have GCSEs in both Maths and English at Grade C (4) or above, or equivalent.

Main duties of the job

This position aims to enhance quality of patient care by contributing to an efficient medicines management service at ward level. The role supports ward services by managing ward top-ups and stock control,, while working closely with Medicines Management Technicians and Ward Pharmacists, assisting with ordering and dispensing individual patients’ medicines and carrying out medicines safety checks.

Key Responsibilities:

Contribute to medicines management tasks in assigned wards and clinical areas such as:

• Ward top-ups
• Evaluating PODs for potential reuse
• Maintaining safe storage of medication
• Monitoring of clinical area environments

Support dispensary services, including dispensing To Take Away (TTA) medications or blister packs.

Support Pharmacy Stores in assembling stock for distribution to clinical areas, and completing returns.

Performance and Safety:

• Work accurately, effectively, and efficiently to uphold high-quality service standards for patients, staff, and departments.
• Perform medicine safety checks and environmental monitoring, recording results at every shift.
• Conduct medicines management and handling audits under the supervision of the matron, pharmacist, or pharmacy technician.
• Actively engage as a team member.
• Ensure continuous two-way communication between the pharmacy and clinical ward areas, to maintain high standards across the Trust.

Working for our organisation

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

See Job description attached.

WARD BASED RESPONSIBILITIES

Band 2 duties

• To work on designated wards and perform a range of pharmacy related duties in accordance with set procedures.
• Daily stock replenishments of medicines on assigned wards, to resolve any stock problems and communicate stock issues to the ward pharmacy team and other healthcare professionals, always upholding good medicines management practices.
• To carry out regular expiry date checks and to remove any redundant or expired medication from the ward and report these to the ward pharmacist and ward manager.
• Stock control and ensuring sufficient stock is kept as per stock list.
• To always maintain safe storage of medications on the ward and monitor the room and fridge temperatures to ensure medications are kept at optimal levels.
• Dispense discharge medicines on the allocated wards to support discharge flow and ensure pharmacy sundries are replenished regularly.
• To highlight trends in excessive wastage or medication storage errors in the clinical areas.
• To manage and ensure the smooth transfer between wards or return of medicines to the pharmacy department, following patient transfer or discharge, by liaising with ward staff and/or by checking Care Flow on the Trust computer system.

Band 3 duties (in addition to above)

• After a successful probation period to undertake medicines management accreditations for transcribing and patient’s own drug (POD) checks and then carry out these duties with the guidance of a qualified pharmacy technician or pharmacist once accredited.

Person specification

Education/ Qualification

• GCSE or equivalent
• NVQ Level 2 in Pharmacy
• Previous work experience in pharmacy

Personal Qualities and Experience

• Ability to work under pressure whilst maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
• Knowledge of efficient stock control

Skills and Abilities

• Able to organise and prioritise workload, and to meet pre-determined deadlines
• Experience of dispensing all kinds of prescriptions

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:

• Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
• Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
• Participate in required training and supervision.
• Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Your application form –

• Provide only business email address for your referees – we are unable to request references from yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail accounts.
• Make sure you to include all evidence of where you meet

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